


Gruvia: Umbrella

by orphan_account



Category: Fairy Tail
Genre: AU, Coffee, F/M, Fluff, Gray being an ARTIST ya huh, Gruvia - Freeform, Nalu - Freeform, Rain, hinted gajevy, juvia being adorable, lucy being Juvia's love guru, minor NaLu
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-18
Updated: 2016-06-18
Packaged: 2018-07-15 20:42:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,281
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7237765
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Modern!AU Juvia is caught in the rain and Gray lends her an umbrella, fluff ensues :)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Gruvia: Umbrella

It was the type of day that people spend curled up in their pyjamas with a mug of hot chocolate, rain lashed down and grey clouds billowed across the sky. Juvia Lockser was not so lucky. Instead of spending the day tucked up in bed with her new book and maybe some tea, she had been called into work to do some emergency paperwork for her boss. Now she was stranded with no umbrella in the lobby of her office building. Brilliant.

The clouds rolled dramatically above her, and thunder boomed from somewhere within their depths. The storm showed no sign of stopping, but Juvia didn’t have a car or a coat, or anything really, to protect her from the rain.  
‘Stupid Lyon.’ she muttered, the paperwork could have easily been emailed to her, but on the phone her boss had made it sound like a catastrophe that she just had to come and sort out. Juvia was too nice (or too shy) to refuse outright even though it was her day off, but Lyon had just tried to hit on her again. Like that was ever going to happen.

Juvia squared her shoulders and pulled her hat further down over her blue hair, she was going to have to brace the weather. It was a pity really, her eyeliner that morning had been near perfect and her hair was curling just right, not to mention that she was wearing a white shirt.  
‘Great.’ she murmured to herself, ‘another opportunity for creeps to hit on me.’

‘Hey, do you need to borrow an umbrella?’ A voice said right behind her. Juvia jumped, and whirled around to face the speaker, praying that it wasn’t Lyon.   
‘Eep!’ She squeaked. This was definitely not Lyon. The man stood before her was tall and muscular, with spiky black hair and dark blue eyes.   
‘An umbrella. Do you need one?’ He repeated sounding slightly annoyed.  
‘Yes please!’ Juvia said quickly, trying to smile in a non-creepy way, blood rushing to her cheeks. The man handed over a black umbrella and she shakily accepted it.  
‘I’m just visiting my brother, you can get it back to me tomorrow.’ He explained, Juvia nodded quickly,  
‘That’s very kind of you, uh what did you say your name was?’  
The man smirked and Juvia tried not to squeal.  
‘Gray. Gray Fullbuster.’  
Juvia smiled warmly,   
‘Thanks Gray.’  
He nodded and turned towards the stairs,  
‘I’m Juvia, by the way!’ She called after him, and he raised a hand in acknowledgement. 

Still smiling, Juvia exited the building and unfurled the umbrella. She walked briskly to her apartment building, a smile on her lips and a blush on her cheeks.   
‘Gray Fullbuster.’ She whispered to herself.

 

‘So you asked for his number, right?’ Juvia’s friend Lucy squealed down the phone.  
Juvia paused her happy dancing.  
‘Oh no!’  
‘Oh Juvia.’  
‘Juvia forgot to give him her number! How will Juvia ever find him again?’ Juvia wailed. Lucy laughed,  
‘Ask around at the office, love shall find a way!’  
Juvia could hear Lucy’s boyfriend laughing and Lucy swatting him. Lucy did tend to be rather over-dramatic when it came to love, Juvia knew that Natsu (Lucy’s boyfriend) pretended to hate it but secretly loved it. She couldn’t lie, she was jealous of her friend’s relationship, Juvia wanted to be loved and to love in return.  
‘Thanks Lucy-chan,’ Juvia sighed, ‘Juvia must go now, she still has work to do.’  
‘Stop that Natsu! Bye Juvia!’ Lucy called, Juvia hung up and flopped onto an arm chair. Why was she so hopeless at relationships?

 

The next day, Juvia carefully placed the umbrella into a plastic bag and tied a thank-you note to the handle. She was going to find this Gray Fullbuster. 

She entered work with the air of a woman on a mission. She asked every man she saw if they had a brother, but no one had a brother called Gray. By the afternoon, Juvia’s spirits had dropped slightly, especially as she had to spend the afternoon working with some graphic designer who Lyon had employed to design the company’s new logo, as if she wasn’t busy enough with all the extra paperwork Lyon had assigned to her!

Shoving the plastic bag carrying the umbrella into her satchel, Juvia knocked on the door of Lyon’s office. Lyon swung the door open with his usual vigour and practically sang her name in delight.  
‘Juvia-chan! What a pleasant surprise!’  
‘Lyon-san asked Juvia to be here.’ she replied testily, her usual patience drained by her busy morning. Lyon seemed undaunted as he ushered her into his office. Juvia had to admit, she did like Lyon’s office, it was bright and spacious with floor to ceiling windows that looked out across the city, much better than her cramped office that was filled with filing cabinets. 

Lyon took her shoulder and turned her towards the big table that was usually used for meetings, today however, it was covered in bits of paper, a very expensive looking laptop and a graphics tablet. A man was scrawling on the graphics tablet, Juvia gasped,  
‘Gray?’  
The man looked up and his eyes brightened in recognition.  
‘Umbrella-girl!’  
Juvia blushed and dug out the plastic bag from her bag,  
‘Here is your umbrella, Juvia is very grateful.’   
Lyon frowned and glanced at the two of them,  
‘You’ve met?’  
Gray accepted his umbrella from Juvia and placed it on the table,  
‘Yeah, I leant her my umbrella yesterday.’  
‘Good good,’ Lyon said briskly, ‘Juvia, please could you help Gray with his design work, you know, show him what the company is about.’  
Juvia nodded enthusiastically all her early complaints evaporating   
‘Of course Lyon-san, Juvia is happy to help!’  
‘I’ll leave you to it then!’ Lyon waved and left the office. Juvia sat down on a chair next to Gray.  
‘So Lyon’s your brother then?’ she asked awkwardly, all the casual but confident conversation starters that she had planned the night before slipping out of her head like water. Gray looked at her weirdly,  
‘How d’you know that?’  
Juvia blushed and fiddled with the hem of her skirt,  
‘You said that you were seeing your brother yesterday so Juvia just assumed-’  
‘Oh yeah.’ he said, ‘He’s my adopted brother.’  
Juvia nodded and peered at some of sheets of paper that littered the table. Most of them were statistics and graphs that she had no idea how they would help when designing a logo.  
‘Why do you always refer to yourself in third person?’ Gray asked bluntly. Juvia blushed even more,  
‘Ju-I have always done so, since Ju-I was little. It was my way of distancing myself from well, myself. Sorry if it’s annoying.’   
‘No!’ Gray said hurriedly, ‘Don’t stop, it’s cute.’ When he realised what he had just said he blushed and stared at the laptop screen. Juvia gasped,  
‘Gray-sama finds Juvia cute?’ she asked in wonderment. Gray blushed even harder.  
‘Let’s get started on the logo.’ he said quickly,  
‘R-right.’ Juvia said and leaned over to see what he had done. However, there was no logo on the screen, but a cartoon of Lyon as a frog.  
‘Crap!’ Gray said, his ears going red, ‘you weren’t meant to see that.’  
Juvia giggled,  
‘It is very good. Juvia thinks the likeness is spot on.’  
Gray looked at her and grinned before puffing out his cheeks like a frog and saying,  
‘Yes! This company is wonderful, we have done amazing things in the thrilling world of hydro-electricity!’ in a passable imitation of Lyon. Juvia clapped her hands and laughed, then puffed out her cheeks and joined in.  
‘Juvia-chan! You must complete these forms by tonight or the whole company shall shut down, but do not worry, I, Lyon Vastia, shall be here for moral support!’  
Gray laughed,  
‘Spot on Juvia!’  
Although Juvia felt a little bad for imitating her boss, who was actually very kind, if a little full on at times, it made her chest feel warm as she laughed with Gray. In fact, she felt a lot happier than she had in a long long time. 

The rest of the afternoon passed quickly, and she helped Gray come up with three designs and slogan, whilst laughing and chatting together. At half past three, Gray stretched his arms above his head and yawned.  
‘Juvia would you mind grabbing me some coffee before we finalise this design?’  
Juvia nodded,  
‘Of course Gray-sama, what would you like?’   
‘Just a latte please, skim milk, no sugar.’  
Juvia grabbed her bag and practically skipped out of the office, once she had left the building she whipped out her phone and called Lucy.  
‘Guess what!’  
‘What?’ Lucy said, amused.  
‘I found Gray!’  
‘Wow! How?’  
‘He’s working on our new logo, and I’m working with him!’  
Lucy squealed,  
‘I’m not even going to ask how that works, I’m so happy for you!’  
‘Juvia is just getting coffee so she has to go now, I’ll talk to you later.’ Juvia promised,  
‘You better!’ Lucy laughed, then hung up.

Juvia entered the coffee shop with a smile on her face, a waitress waved at her happily,  
‘Juvia! How are you?’  
‘Juvia is very well thanks Mirajane, how are you?’   
Mirajane pushed her long white hair behind her shoulder and smiled kindly at Juvia,  
‘I am very well thank you my dear, what’ll it be today?’  
Juvia ordered a hot chocolate and a latte to go then perched herself on a stool by the counter as she waited. Mirajane’s coffee shop (named The Strauss’) was busy as usual, it was a very pleasant cafe, and the people who ran it were absolutely lovely, so Juvia was not at all surprised that it was so popular.   
‘Here you go Juvia-chan!’ Mirajane said brightly, setting the two drinks down on the counter in front of Juvia.  
‘Thank you Mirajane-san!’  
Mirajane laughed, and it sounded like glass tinkling,  
‘Make sure you bring your special someone here to meet me!’  
Juvia felt confused,   
‘Wha-? How do you know about Gray-sama?’  
Mirajane chuckled,   
‘I can see it in your eyes and your smile, bye Juvia-chan!’  
Juvia giggled,  
‘Good-bye Mirajane-san!’

Juvia knew that it was a bit silly to be obsessing over someone that she just met, but he was handsome, kind and funny, how could she not? All of her friends had boyfriends or girlfriends, even Gajeel-kun, who was the grumpiest person that Juvia knew! Juvia was 23 now, and she wanted to settle down and find someone to share her life with, her last boyfriend, Bora, had left her 2 years ago after he cheated on her and she had not had a relationship since.   
Juvia shook herself from her thoughts as she entered her office building, she needed to be focused when she talked to Gray.

‘Here you go Gray-sama!’ Juvia said happily as she set the drink down in front of him. Gray jumped and quickly changed the page he had been looking at.  
‘Thanks Juvia, shall we try and finish this logo today then?’  
Juvia nodded, but her stomach clenched, was he so sick of her company that he wanted to finish this as soon as possible? They worked in near silence, only exchanging a few suggestions on font and colour, for the next hour, then Gray pushed his chair back and grabbed his backpack.  
‘I think we’re done here, I’ll go over the design tonight then email it to Lyon.’  
Juvia nodded, still feeling disappointed that he wanted to leave her so soon.  
‘It’s been great working with you Juvia.’ Gray said softly, Juvia met his gaze,  
‘Juvia has enjoyed it very much.’  
Gray gathered his things and left the office. Juvia sighed. Not everything worked out the way it did in movies. 

There was still 20 minutes left before she had to leave and Lyon had yet to make an appearance, so Juvia decided to sort the papers that were scattered across the table. Gray had left his keys on his chair, so she placed them carefully on Lyon’s desk so that her boss could deliver them to him later. She was just sorting through some graphs on energy efficiency from the last year when a folded piece of paper fell out from between two pages and onto the table. Juvia unfolded the paper carefully, on it was a message in black biro:

Hey Juvia, I really enjoyed working with you today and I was wondering if you’d like to meet up for coffee some time? -Gray 

Underneath he’d written his number and done a little sketch of an umbrella.

Unable to contain her excitement, Juvia squealed and spun round and round in circles.  
‘He wants to get coffee with me~!’  
The sound of the door closing made her stop mid spin and turn around. Gray stood in front of the door staring at her. Juvia backed-up in embarrassment and tripped over a chair, just before she hit the ground she felt strong eyes around her waist. Gray gently pulled her upright, Juvia blushed at her clumsiness and his contact.  
‘I left my keys.’ Gray said, gesturing awkwardly to the keys on Lyon’s desk.  
‘Juvia was just, um..’ Juvia floundered unable to think of an excuse, Gray smiled shyly,  
‘I’m guessing that’s a yes to coffee?’  
Juvia nodded, equally shyly.  
‘Juvia would like that very much.’  
Gray scooped his keys off Lyon’s desk and offered her his arm.  
‘How about now?’  
Juvia swung her satchel onto her shoulder and accepted his arm, beaming.   
Just as the pair of them reached the main entrance, thunder boomed and rain began to pour down. Gray turned to Juvia with a crooked smile.  
‘Don’t worry, I have an umbrella.’

**Author's Note:**

> This was a quick one-shot that I wrote when I was procrastinating, I hoped you liked it :)   
> My tumblr: roar-of-the-fire-dragon  
> Feel free to send me an ask :)


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